Jewels of Confidence

Building Confidence & Self-Esteem in African-American Teens

With all the perceived images of beauty bombarding the television and magazines, there is no wonder that teen girls in America are experiencing a self-image problem. Television shows like Nickelodeon’s ICarly, Big Time Rush and Victorious who are geared toward pre-teen and teenage girls may not understand the impact they have on the self-esteem of young girls. Although these shows do not send out blatant negative images such as drug use and sex it is the subliminal messages sent that may be more damaging. Most of the characters on the shows are Caucasian, petite, popular, well dressed and pretty. Young African American girls watch these shows because it may address issues close to their ages but also because there are no shows on television which showcases an all-African American cast. Most AA teens have no sitcoms that they can relate to where the characters look like them. Because of the lack of diversity on these sitcoms, most AA teens will begin to mimic what they see thus causing an issue with who they are and what they look like. When teen girls do venture out to look at shows with an all AA cast such as Basketball Wives and Housewives of Atlanta (read more)

My Lips are too Thick, My Nose is too Long

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, why can’t I be the fairest of all?My lips are too thick, my nose is too long, my feet are too big, and for a girl, I’m too tallI’m shy in front of strangers and don’t have designer gearMy peers snicker at me, and I just want to disappearMy siblings are talented and are destined for fameWill anyone ever like me for a change?By the time I was thirteen, I was already five-foot-seven, one of the tallest girls in my junior high school. My mother had affectionately nicknamed me “string-bean” because of my lanky build. I had to endure constant questions about whether or not I played or considered playing basketball. First of all, to play basketball required confidence. It meant that you wanted to be front and center and that you had mad skills. But I was about as coordinated as a cyclist on an oil slick. I had dance lessons as a child to help overcome stage fright and also enrolled in a few modeling courses to assist with “finding my way,” but internally, I was not convinced I was capable of doing anything other than to cower and hide behind something that would shield me and not call attention to myself. (read more)

Cultivating a Diamond in the Rough

Building the self-esteem of young teenage girls can seem to be a very challenging entity within itself; while, destroying it is a lot easier. After looking at what society deems to be the latest movement on how a woman should look, act, think, and feel, it has become apparent that no one really has a clue! Society has become way off course here. For one, God didn’t create each of us to be the size 4 which they consider to be the perfect size (at 98 pounds fully clothed and soaking wet standing 5 foot 9 inches in height). This false ideal starts our young women down the roads of eating disorders and self- hatred because they’re not up to what mainstream thinks they should be. Little do they know that these young women are “Diamonds in the Rough.”(read more)